Short Account History

I was looking over my EQ Fico Score and how they came up with 686 when I signed up for it on 10/18/11

One of the things they mention that is hurting my score is "short account history"

You have a short credit history.

Your oldest account was opened10 Years, 8 Months agoAverage age of your accounts8 years

FICO High Achievers [?]opened their oldest account 19 years ago, on average.

Most FICO High Achievers [?]have an average age of accounts between 6 and 12 years.

Your FICO score measures the age of your oldest account and the average age of your accounts. In your case, either your oldest account was opened recently or the average age of your accounts is relatively low. People that do not frequently open new accounts and have longer credit histories generally pose less risk to lenders. Therefore, as your credit history lengthens and you pay your bills on time, this factor should have less of a negative impact on your score.

Do I really have a short account history???

I am only asking because reading other posts on here mention that they have only had credit cards for 5 years or less and their AAoA is like 2-3 years where mine is 8 years

Re: Short Account History

No, not really. That is actually a higher AAoA then most on here I have seen post. That factor had to be towards the bottom of the list though. With credit scores in the 600s, you have some negative account history I would assume?

Re: Short Account History

I think that it also compares the AAoA with the longest. Maybe 6-12 average vs 19 longest seems a bit on the short side, although I don't think it's so awful. Mine is 5 years AAoA vs 22 longest, and boy, do I hear about that!

Re: Short Account History

No, not really. That is actually a higher AAoA then most on here I have seen post. That factor had to be towards the bottom of the list though. With credit scores in the 600s, you have some negative account history I would assume?

Yea I do have a satisfied judgement that is scheduled to fall off by 08/12 and for some odd reason EQ is reporting it twice so I am in the process of disputing it and actually going to try to get both removed since they have been reporting duplicate info for years.

The second thing that's negative is my utilization at 54% but it's actually down to about 45% right now and I am working on getting it to 30% by the end of the year

Re: Short Account History

My fico report tells me that I have a short account history, and that this is affecting my score? My oldest account is from 6 years and 3 months ago. I am only 25 years old how am I supposed to have anything longer than that. My score is a 713, Is it going to stay low like that until I have an account open for 12+ years?

Or what can I do to get a better score, I have no negative accounts or anything! Does having to many credit cards bring down your score? (most of them have no balance)

Re: Short Account History

My fico report tells me that I have a short account history, and that this is affecting my score? My oldest account is from 6 years and 3 months ago. I am only 25 years old how am I supposed to have anything longer than that. My score is a 713, Is it going to stay low like that until I have an account open for 12+ years?

Or what can I do to get a better score, I have no negative accounts or anything! Does having to many credit cards bring down your score? (most of them have no balance)

It's talking about your AAoA. Your oldest account is 6 years old but if you have say 3 accounts opened this year and you average those out it will bring the AAoA down. No, having too many credit cards does not bring your account down, except for the aforementioned AAoA. Maybe it's time to get in the garden club and just let your accounts grow.

Re: Short Account History

I think the determination is also based on comparing you to other people in your bucket.

In July, my TU report said one of my positive factors was a long history of accounts, oldest account was 18 yrs 10 mos, AAoA 5 years. In September, my TU report said one of my NEGATIVE factors was a short history of accounts, oldest account was 19 yrs 0 mos, AAoA 5 years. I have to conclude I was rebucketed into a bucket for people with oldest account 19 years and over. I was honestly expecting this exact thing to happen because I had read on these forums somewhere that 19 years was one of the cut-offs for the age buckets. While I was at the top end of the bucket for people with oldest accounts under 19 years, I'm now at the absolute bottom of the spectrum for people with oldest accounts of 19 years or over. Thus, it's a negative factor (albeit the 3rd factor out of 3 total negative factors). I'm not really concerned about it because I know the new bucket just means my score has the chance to rise even higher than I could've possibly gotten it before. Now when that oldest account drops off my reports due to being closed for 10 years (which will occur in 2014) then I may shed a tear because I'll again be rebucketed into a lower age bracket, but such is life and I've got 2 years to mitigate the damage that it may (or may not!) cause.

Re: Short Account History

I have a situation where Rich's department store (now Macy's) has been reporting on my TU fico, But not my EFX fico.. I got that card back in 1991 and was surprised to see that it was still reporting as I only used it couple of times in the first three years I had it. I called Macy's to see if they could pull up the info, but I had no account number to give them.. So they tried doing it with my SSN, and it didn't work. After going thru an old box of photos and birthday cards, I found the Rich's card! I'm somewhat discouraged about calling them back, but what do I have to lose. I think this is the reason my TU score is so much higher than my EFX score. Advice please!

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